


Dead reckoning

by myhappyface



Category: Thunderheart (1992)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-15
Updated: 2010-12-15
Packaged: 2017-10-13 16:51:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/139500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myhappyface/pseuds/myhappyface
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Old tracker's tricks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dead reckoning

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thecarlysutra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecarlysutra/gifts).



> For carlyinrome, who is the bestest.

Most people think tracking is all instinct.

That's what you call _wrong_.

 _Recognition of sign_

Walter was ten when he went to the boarding school, and much older when he came back. They told him all the kids came in with lice, so they had to shave his hair off, but even after he'd been there for months, shined and polished, they wouldn't let him grow it back out.

Walter's always been quick on his feet, so they only had to wash his mouth out with soap a few times before he stopped speaking in front of the missionaries and started keeping watch. When they were out of earshot, he and a few boys from the rez would talk quietly, in their real voices, reaching for words that were already starting to fall away from disuse.

They let his mother take him home when he was twelve, near thirteen, and Walter didn't speak another word of Lakota until he was twenty-two. His parents were patient about it, for a while, because they knew what the schools off the rez were like, but eventually his Pop took him over to Grampa's and made him talk until his throat was hoarse, and took him back the next day, and the next, until Walter started going on his own.

The point is, even if you're careful, you can lose things without even realizing what you've lost.

 _Investigation_

When he comes back to the rez, Ray spends a lot of time with Grampa, maybe more than Walter had really expected, even considering the likely existential crisis. There's respecting your elders, which Walter does, because his Ma raised him right, and there's harassing your elders, which Walter has paperwork for.

Ray goes out to Grampa's in the morning while Walter is at the station, relieving the night shift - well, Tom - and is usually back by mid morning, and over lunch he never says, "Oh, by the way, I learned five new words and read about the Alcatraz occupation today; pass the salt, would you?"

Walter knows leaving the feds cost Ray a lot. He can't total it all up, not yet, but he can keep a tally: moving to the Badlands meant a fortune lost in respect, in friendships, in career prospects. Only time would tell if the price was worth it.

What Walter can't figure out is if Ray is keeping secrets or if he's just waiting for Walter to _ask_.

 _Anticipation_

After the first few months, Ray gets settled in. He spends more time at the station and less at Grampa's, and he stops being so damn tidy at the house. It's not that Walter objects to the tidiness itself, but once Ray starts leaving his shirts on the chair and not neatly pressed and hanging in the closet, Walter knows he has a partner instead of a house guest.

Once he finds his feet and gets used to the rhythm of policing on the rez, Ray fits in just fine. He's a good man to have in a crisis, with that laser focus of his, but now that Milton's on his way out, there's less secret test-drilling for toxic materials and more breaking up liquor-fueled brawls or rounding up wayward kids on Saturday nights before they can get into too much trouble. Ray takes to it, but Walter knows this isn't the job he trained for, or even one he wanted.

Walter may say something along those lines to Grampa, once, after he brings him back from the general store, and even though Walter swears to it later, Ray never believes him when he says Grampa rolled his eyes.

"Stop worrying about what you could lose and look at what you have," Grampa tells him.

 _Stealth_

Dead reckoning is the process by which you figure out where you need to go by looking at where you've been.

This is also called _learning from your mistakes_.


End file.
